INDONESIA has now turned hotels in Jakarta into Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centres, following drastic increase in number of cases and hospitals in the provinces almost reaching full capacity.

Jakarta Health Agency’s Public Health Sector head Fify Mulyani said two hotels, namely Ibis Style in Mangga Dua, North Jakarta and U Stay Hotel in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, have been converted into quarantine and treatment centres from yesterday.

Without mentioning the number of patients being treated there, he said Ibis could accommodate 212 patients and U Stay (140).

Meanwhile, Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association chairman Krisnadi in a statement said, 30 hotels in Jakarta have been identified to be converted as temporary hospitals for treatment and quarantine of virus patients.

On September 14, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said 67 hospitals in Jakarta were at over 70% of usage level of equipment, beds and medical facilities following the trend of new positive cases in Jakarta with an average of almost 1,000 daily cases since the end of August.

Based on the data posted by Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Authority (BNPB) on its official Twitter page@BNPB_Indonesia today, a total of 1,238 new cases were reported in Jakarta in the last 24 hours.

The province of Jakarta has the highest number of cases in the republic at 72,577, with total fatalities at 1,716.

Based on BNPB data, Indonesia today recorded 4,002 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of cases in the republic to 282,724 cases.

Another 132,496 patients are still being monitored for the viral infection throughout Indonesia.

Between noon yesterday and noon today, 128 more deaths occurred, bringing the cumulative figure to 10,601. – Bernama, September 29, 2020.